22 die as Egypt police clash with football fans

CAIRO: Twenty-two people were killed Sunday in clashes between Egyptian police and Zamalek football club fans at a Cairo stadium, the state prosecutor said, in the country’s deadliest sports violence since dozens died at a match in 2012.

According to the health ministry, at least another 25 people were wounded in the clashes that erupted when fans tried to force their way into the venue to watch a game.

The violence prompted the government to postpone the Egyptian Premier League indefinitely, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

The match between Zamalek and Enbi was open to the public, unlike most other games between Egyptian football clubs since deadly stadium riots in Port Said in 2012.

“We were inside the stadium when the clashes began outside. There was a police car on fire and they were shooting birdshot and tear gas,” a witness told AFP.

“The people fled into the desert to escape” the clashes in the northeastern Cairo stadium, he said.

The interior ministry had restricted to 10,000 the number of spectators allowed into the stadium, and tickets quickly ran out.

Thousands of fans without tickets scaled the stadium walls before police dispersed them, the ministry said.